Suadis sweep up more al Qaeda

Reuters/NY Times:

Saudi Arabia, fighting a violent campaign by al Qaeda supporters, has detained 139 suspected Islamist militants including a would-be suicide bomber, Al Arabiya television said on Saturday.

The militants were not Saudi nationals and included leaders of several cells, it said, citing a Saudi Interior Ministry statement. It gave no names but said the arrests had been made over the past two months.

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Officials say more than 136 militants and 150 foreigners and Saudis, including security forces, have since died though the violence has ebbed in the face of tougher security measures.

The authorities in the world's biggest oil exporter have been seizing dozens of al Qaeda members or sympathisers around the country for months, but the latest round up was large.

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I am surprised that the number of dead "militants," aka terrorist for those not with Reuters, is not higher. The Saudis have actually done a pretty good job of knocking off al Qaeda leaders in the country. Where they have failed is in stopping the creation of new ones. Their education system is still pumping out religious and ethnic bigotry.